For six months he was confined to a bed separated from his family in an orthopedic hospital that devoted much of its space, including the hallways, in the late '40s to polio patients.

He was 10 years old.

The disease robbed the former farm boy of a normal childhood, took away any hopes of becoming an athlete but saved him from wartime duty. It altered the way he walked, his gait forever including a limp.

And in a cruel twist, his overly strained muscles, ligaments and joints have taken a toll on his body during his adult years with weakness and atrophy in his knees.

In our family Dr. Jonas Salk is a hero for developing a vaccine for the crippling disease — he and all the other scientists, researchers and physicians whose achievements we rely on, take for granted and need in our modern-day existence to save us from the horrors and the panic of the past.

So when the time came to have our own children vaccinated, it's something we did without hesitation. After all, the reminders are all around us, memories still fresh.

With the current vaccination controversy raging across the country and conversations and debates about the practice taking place like never before, I feel resolute in my decision, knowing that my children are protected and won't have to endure the same suffering their grandfather did.

That reassurance comes every time I see my dad walk.

And it's one that came at a heavy price.

— Julie Gilkay: 920-993-1000, ext. 319, or jgilkay@postcrescent.com; on Twitter @JulieGilkay. She is the mother of Benjamin, 13, Grace, 11, and Lucas, 9.